The Daily Populous Wednesday July 2nd, 2025 night edition
Authored by cbsnews.com and submitted by GregWilson23

Washington — The Senate narrowly passed President Trump's massive tax and spending bill Tuesday after a marathon series of amendment votes that stretched more than 24 hours, delivering a major victory for the president and bringing the signature piece of legislation of his second term one step closer to his desk.

The measure passed in a 51 to 50 vote, with all but three Republicans supporting the bill. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. GOP Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine joined all Democrats in voting against the bill.

The vote came after the Senate worked through the weekend and into a scheduled recess to pass the bill, which now returns to the House for sign-off. Mr. Trump has vowed to swiftly sign the measure, and pushed lawmakers to approve it by July 4.

The legislation's passage also marks a significant victory for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who worked to sway GOP holdouts to back the legislation amid opposition on multiple fronts that threatened to thwart the bill's progress in recent days.

"This was an incredible victory for the American people," Thune said after the vote.

Known by the GOP as the "big, beautiful bill," the legislation includes ramped-up spending for border security, defense and energy production and extends trillions of dollars in tax cuts, partially offset by cuts to health care and nutrition programs. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the legislation would increase federal deficits by nearly $3.3 trillion over the next decade.

While some Republicans had taken issue with the legislation's impact on the deficit, others cited concern with some of the steep cuts to Medicaid, which the CBO has said would leave nearly 12 million more Americans without health coverage over the coming years. And with a 53-seat majority, Senate GOP leaders could only afford to lose three Republican votes, with Vance as a tie-breaker. But those concerns were not enough to defeat the legislation, and last-minute changes secured the support of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, while apparently quelling other possible opponents to the bill.

Mr. Trump welcomed news of the vote during a trip to Florida. "There is something for everyone [in the bill], and I think it's going to go very nicely in the House," Mr. Trump said. "Actually, I think it will be easier in the House than it was in the Senate."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune walks to the Senate floor during overnight votes at the U.S. Capitol on July 1, 2025. Al Drago / Getty Images

Thune, a South Dakota Republican, met with possible holdouts in his office as the vote series stretched late Monday and into the wee hours Tuesday. The majority leader met with fiscal hawks including Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rick Scott of Florida, and at another point in the night, he met with Paul, who had pledged to oppose the bill over a provision raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.

Thune also talked briefly with Murkowski early Tuesday, since it appeared likely that her vote could make or break the bill in the Senate. The Alaska Republican had concerns about cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs and their impact on her state.

Murkowski told reporters after the vote that her thought process on the bill was "agonizing."

"I struggled mightily with the impact on the most vulnerable in this country," Murkowski said, citing the cuts to social safety net programs. But she outlined the unique conditions in her state, and the support Alaska received in the final version of the bill, saying "I had to look on balance because people in my state are the ones that I put first."

In a statement later in the afternoon, Murkowski said, "My sincere hope is that this is not the final product."

"This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President's desk," she wrote. "We need to work together to get this right."

Senate Republicans advanced the legislation late Saturday, with all but two voting in favor following hours of delay as the GOP worked to iron out last-minute details and dispel concern among holdouts, including the fiscal hawks, Murkowski and Collins.

Paul and Tillis were the two Republicans to oppose the bill's advancement Saturday, and they both voted against the legislation on final passage. With a handful of other possible opponents, Thune told reporters overnight that GOP leaders were working to determine what "everybody has to have in terms of votes," a sign that the vote would come down to the wire.

The Senate action comes after the House narrowly passed the bill last month. Senate Republicans worked to put their mark on the legislation, treading carefully so as not to throw off the delicate balance in the lower chamber.

The House will need to approve the Senate's changes to the bill before it can head to the president's desk for his signature. And lawmakers are trying to move quickly, with a self-imposed July 4 deadline to get the measure signed. The House could return to Washington as early as Wednesday to begin consideration of the revised bill.

Senate Republicans passed the legislation through the budget reconciliation process, which enables the party in the majority to move ahead without support from across the aisle. The Senate worked through the weekend as the GOP entered a final sprint on the legislation ahead of the July 4 deadline.

Senate Democrats combatted the legislation in one of the only ways available to them: by delaying the process. Democrats forced the bill to be read in its entirety over the weekend, totaling nearly 16 hours, before using debate time to rail against the bill, and proposing amendments to put their GOP colleagues on the record on a number of controversial issues ahead of the midterm elections.

On Monday, the Senate began what's known as a "vote-a-rama," in which senators could offer an unlimited number of amendments and force the chamber to cast vote after vote. Democrats proposed a number of amendments to attempt to roll back some of the bill's more controversial provisions, to no avail. As the votes stretched overnight Monday and into Tuesday, senators voted on a handful of notable amendments, including a near-unanimous vote to eliminate language from the bill that would have put a pause on state regulations on artificial intelligence. The Senate also approved an amendment to move up Medicaid eligibility verification requirements preventing payments for people who are deceased.

An amendment proposed by Collins that would have increased the rural hospital stabilization fund from $25 billion to $50 billion and imposed a higher tax rate on the wealthy to pay for the larger fund fell short. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters ahead of the vote that the amendment was like putting a "band aid on an amputation — it doesn't fix the problem." The outcome made it less likely that Collins would ultimately support the bill, although the change was expected to be included in a wide-ranging amendment to the bill.

During the marathon vote series, the Senate also addressed an outstanding disagreement over the current policy baseline, an accounting approach that would make it appear that extending the current tax policy would cost nothing. Though Democrats railed against the move as the "nuclear option," the chamber voted along party lines to affirm the use of the current policy baseline.

Schumer lambasted the bill after the vote, criticizing Republicans for bowing to the president.

"The American people will remember the Republican betrayal," Schumer said.

ObjectiveOrange3490 on July 1st, 2025 at 16:35 UTC »

A decent number of rural Americans are gonna watch their local hospitals close and they'll still vote for these people.

Ok-Lets-Talk-It-Out on July 1st, 2025 at 16:17 UTC »

Lisa Murkowski betraying the people of Alaska.

Edit: To understand the type of people in the GOP, here is Lisa after she voted yes-

“I had to look on balance, because the people in my state are the ones that I put first,” Murkowski said. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.”

“I’ve urged the White House that I think that more process is needed to this bill, because I would like to see a better outcome for people in this country,” she said.

She admits the bill will hurt Americans and shouldn't pass, then goes and votes yes hoping others will do her job for her because she doesn't want Trump to threaten her on social media. She is one of many pathetic GOP legislators.

Josh Hawley was another who said the same thing and yet still voted yes, imagine if those people were actually forced to do their jobs.

"This has been an unhappy episode here in Congress, this effort to cut Medicaid. And I think, frankly, my party needs to do some soul-searching. If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to deliver for working-class people. You cannot take away health care from working people. And unless this is changed going forward, that is what will happen in coming years. So I’m going to do everything I can to stop that."-Josh 'Feckless' Hawley

The way to stop it was to vote no.

BTRCguy on July 1st, 2025 at 16:16 UTC »

All the hand-wringing vanished in the end. As predicted.

Now for the House version of the same political theatre.